"There is only one power that determines the course of history . . . the power of ideas." — Ayn Rand

Friday, May 8, 2015

Zoning and Government School Taxes

As is usually the case when government coercively interferes in private affairs—i.e., violates someone’s individual rights—controls lead to unforeseen (by the statists) problems, which leads to more controls to alleviate the problems caused by the original controls. I’ve been writing about New Jersey’s “Affordable housing” battles, which pits local communities that want to zone out low and moderate cost housing development against the state that wants more “affordable housing” built.

Now, consider one of the main reasons local communities want to zone out low and moderate income housing. New Jersey Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine, in a question and answer followup to his article Chris Christie's the cat who ate the COAH canary, points to the issue:

Q. I don't get it. The courts say farmland in one town has to be jammed with housing while farmland in a neighboring town can be preserved. Why pick on West Windsor?

A. Because it has zoned for a lot of new businesses.

Q. Why did it do that?

A. Because it needs new ratables to reduce the high property taxes that pay for its schools.

Businesses, of course, don’t generate children who need to be educated. Housing does. So townships would rather zone for property tax-paying development that doesn’t require expenditures for schools; i.e., commercial enterprises. What they try to avoid in their zoning decisions is houses, especially houses priced to appeal to young couples who don’t have a lot of money but will have a lot of children. Fewer houses and more businesses means lower school taxes, the main ingredient in local property taxes in New Jersey. Keeping property taxes low for existing residents is probably the leading reason—though not the only reason—for exclusionary zoning.

I left these comments regarding school taxes as a supplement to my comments on the property rights side of the zoning issue raised by Mulshine:

As to property taxes, they’re mainly driven by school taxes. And here’s the monumental irony: Most people love their local public schools, and support the NJ Constitution’s mandate to provide every child a “thorough and efficient” education. Yet at the same time they hate their high property taxes, and complain that new housing developments will mean more children and thus higher property taxes. But that’s not the fault of developers, property owners, or housing consumers. Higher property taxes should not be used as a rationalization to stop development, because the fundamental problem is tax-funded education, not housing development. Be careful what you wish for.

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Columnist Mulshine, replying to me, noted that

On the school taxes, suffice it to say that the constitution does not mandate a thorough and efficient education but does mandate that state aid be distributed equally, not in the current formula which gives some suburban districts hundreds of the aid of urban districts.

Article VIII, Section IV, Paragraph 1 of the NJ Constitution states: “The Legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction of all the children in the State between the ages of five and eighteen years.” It’s true that the constitution doesn't specifically say “thorough and efficient education.” But as I wrote in reply to Mulshine:

In my view, the “thorough and efficient” clause is vague enough to be open to all sorts of interpretation. But, however one interprets it, it’s still about tax-funded education, which then corrupts people’s judgment on development. That’s my main point.

So high school taxes to support government schools embedded in local property taxes leads local communities to resist housing development, which leads zoning boards to restrict housing development. A free market in both education and housing would solve both problems.

About Me

Greetings and welcome to my blog. My name is Michael A. (Mike) LaFerrara. I sometimes use the pen or "screen" name "Mike Zemack" or "Zemack" in online activism, such as posted comments on articles. “Zemack” stands for the first letters of the names of my six grandchildren. I was born in 1949 in New Jersey, U.S.A., where I retired from a career in the plumbing, building controls, and construction industries, and still reside with my wife of 45 years. The purpose of my blog is the discussion of a wide range of topics relating to human events. My analysis is informed by the principles of Objectivism, the philosophy of reason and independence originated by Ayn Rand.

As Rand observed: “The professional intellectual is the field agent of the army whose commander-in-chief is the philosopher.” I am certainly not the philosopher. But neither am I a field agent, or general. I am a foot soldier in that Objectivist army that fights for an individualist society in which every person can live in dignified sovereignty, by his own reasoned judgment, for his own sake, in that state of peaceful coexistence with his fellow man that only capitalist political and economic freedom can provide. While I am a fully committed Objectivist, my opinions are based on my own understanding of Objectivism, and should not be taken as definitive “Objectivist positions.” For the full story of my journey toward Objectivism, see my Introduction.

One final introductory note: I strongly recommend Philosophy, Who Needs it, which highlights the inescapable importance of philosophy in every individual's life. I can be reached at mal.atlas@comcast.net. Thanks, Mike LaFerrara.

Recommended Essays/Videos

Quotes I Like

Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it. Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter.—Francisco d'Anconia

I love getting older...I get to grow up and learn things. Madalyn, 5 years old, Montesorri student, and my grand-daughter

The best thing one can do for the poor is to not become one of them. Author Unknown

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. Francis Bacon

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. Ronald Reagan

Thinking is hard work. If it weren't, more people would do it. Henry Ford

Intellectual freedom cannot exist without political freedom; political freedom cannot exist without economic freedom; a free mind and a free market are corollaries. Ayn Rand